The British Pharmacological Society is delighted to announce that Professor David Webb, President of the Society from 2016 to 2018, is to be awarded Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, for services to Clinical Pharmacology Research and Education. Professor Webb is Christison Professor of Therapeutics and Clinical Pharmacology, University of Edinburgh.
Professor Webb is a leading international cardiovascular researcher, physician and pharmacologist, who works in the field of hypertension and kidney disease, and runs Edinburgh’s Hypertension Excellence Centre. His research on blood pressure, arterial stiffness and endothelial function has contributed to the development of renin inhibitors, phosphodiesterase inhibitors and endothelin antagonists as new medicines for the treatment of heart disease.
Professor Webb established the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Cardiovascular Science and Clinical Research Centre. He has made other contributions to the development of safe and effective medicines, as a non-executive director and Deputy Chair of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and as Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee for the National Institute of Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC, playing a leading national and international role in assuring the quality of biological medicines and diagnostics, including for COVID-19).
Professor Webb was also central to the development of the UK Prescribing Safety Assessment, administered by the British Pharmacological Society together with the Medical Schools Council. It tests prescribing skills, which he identified in the mid-2000s as a major weakness in medical training. He was also central to developing the cross-sector Clinical Pharmacology Skills Alliance to drive investment in UK clinical pharmacology skills.
In Scotland, Professor Webb has been Chair of the Scottish Medicines Consortium (Scotland’s equivalent of NICE), President of the Scottish Society of Physicians and Vice-President of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (Edinburgh and London), Royal Society of Edinburgh and UK Academy of Medical Sciences. He is an Honorary Fellow of the British Pharmacological Society and the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine.
Professor Webb said:
I am delighted and honoured that my work in pharmacology has been recognised by the award of a CBE. I have had the pleasure of working with some outstanding colleagues in academia, industry and the health service over the years, and I have really enjoyed the breadth of my work - in supporting my patients, developing drugs for heart disease and blood pressure, ensuring that medicines and medical devices are safe and effective, and promoting medical education. I have also had the opportunity to support the British Pharmacological Society, in many roles including President, and to work with the General Medical Council to ensure that the undergraduate medical syllabus adequately covers prescribing skills, and with the Medical Schools Council to develop an examination (The Prescribing Safety Assessment), designed to protect patient safety by assessing safe prescribing, which all new medical graduates (over 8000 each year) have to pass.